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Baltimore blogger surrenders to police after live broadcasting standoff

Man turns to social media, live broadcast with police negotiator as officers attempt to serve warrant

By Justin Fenton and Andrea K. Walker

The Baltimore Sun

Posted:
12/01/2012 11:38:25 PM EST

A Baltimore blogger wanted on a court-issued warrant refused to come out of his home for hours, broadcasting his discussion with a police negotiator live on the Internet before turning himself in peacefully.

Frank James MacArthur, 47, was taken into custody outside his home in the 600 block of McKewin Ave. at about 11 p.m. - timed, he said, for local news stations - after a standoff lasting more than five hours and which involved the department's SWAT team.

Police were there to serve a warrant issued in June by his probation agent stemming from a 2009 gun case and another for subsequent failure to appear in court, according to court records, and the situation was ratcheted up after police said MacArthur made threatening statements to officers over social media.

Social media in the end was where the situation found a wide audience, with thousands following on Twitter and listening on his web radio channel as MacArthur denounced police and refused to surrender.